"Link!"

  Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Mario felt like he was forcing his way through glue, his hand outstretched in an attempt to reach Link before the Master Hand's energy bullet did. Even in this state of everything feeling so slow, it made a trail through the air, and would reach the swordsman in a matter of seconds. There was no way that he'd make it in time.

  Link's hands were pressed against his temples, trying to banish the splitting migraine. Dozens of names flashed through his mind as their faces passed before his eyes - dozens of lives, and all of the faces that they had befriended. But there was Zelda. Zelda. If he died here, then what would happen to Zelda?

  Even if he was in pain. Even if this effort killed him. He couldn't fall before he knew that she would be safe!

  The bullet collided with Link's shield and began to push him back. His feet made deep furrows in the surface of the battlefield as he was pushed towards the edge, and his arm screamed in protest, but he refused to let it drop. The thought of Zelda, held within his mind like a sacred treasure, gave him the strength that he needed to keep on fighting.

  With a final yell of effort, he pushed against the energy bullet. It went spinning away into the darkness, exploding somewhere far away and creating a new star in the sky that burned for a fraction of an eternity before disappearing forever.

  Mario stopped running, aghast, and so did Kirby. They stared in shock at Link, who as far as they could tell had gone from screaming on his knees to standing proudly on two feet with his shield raised. His face was twisted in pain, and sweat coated his forehead, but he managed to grunt out seven words: "I will not let you defeat me."

  He lunged at the Master Hand, sword outstretched. The Master Hand began to back up, but Link was too fast for him and he swiped at the hand three times before it could even flex its fingers. The other fighters watched in awe as Link's mastery with the sword became apparent. Master Hand tried to pull away, but Link's boomerang struck it in the back - Mario hadn't even seen him throw it.

  At this point the hand struck back, backhanding the knight away. Link was sent flying head over heels, but he jammed his sword into the ground to bring himself to a halt and quickly regained his footing. He pulled his bow from his bag and fired three quick shots towards the Master Hand, who knocked them away before rocketing towards Link in the form of a fist.

  Link was struck across most of his torso by the fist. He was thrown back, but he pulled a device out of his pocket and fired it towards the Master Hand. The point, attached to a long chain, snagged on one of the Master Hand's knuckles, and pulled Link in as the chain retracted.

  Then, with a mighty yell, Link slashed down with his sword, and one of the Master Hand's fingers separated from the rest of the hand.

  The finger slammed to the ground with an impossibly loud bang, and the rest of the hand recoiled. Something that looked like a white cloud began to pour from the wound.

  "You... damn knight!" the Master Hand screamed.

  Link fell to one knee. The onslaught had obviously tired him greatly, and based on the way his hand immediately went to head it was clear to the others that he was feeling his headache again.

  "Sorry, everyone," he said. "I don't know how much more use I can be."

  Samus shook her head. "You've shown us that this thing can be damaged," she said. "That's as much as any of us could have done."

  Mario nodded. "That's right. You can rest now."

  Link smiled. "Thanks." He extended his closed fist towards Mario, who smiled back at him and bumped his own fist against it, like they had done after their first fight. Then Link keeled over sideways.

  The Master Hand managed to compose itself, even though the white cloud still leaked from its empty finger socket. "Link... been beaten," it announced. Link disappeared from the battlefield, and this time he didn't reappear in the stands.

  "Mario." Samus gestured to other fighters on the ground, who were starting to show signs of movement again. "We need to buy time for the others. Can we do that?"

  "Yeah," Mario said. "We'll win this, and then we'll make sure we get Link back."

  Yoshi walked up to him, and lowered his head. Mario nodded, and climbed onto Yoshi's back. "Let's do this, pal," he said.

  Pikachu nuzzled Samus's leg. "Yeah, I've got your back," Samus promised.

  Kirby looked around. He didn't have anyone to do this with. His eyes fell on something across the battlefield. Maybe...

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  Mario and Yoshi rode forwards, Yoshi keeping his head low as they approached the Master Hand. Master Hand swung its hand, and the white cloud leaking from its insides formed into crescent shapes that flew towards them. Mario focused for an instant, then summoned a dozen small fireballs at once, throwing them out so they intercepted all of the white blades at once. With that threat gone, Yoshi slammed into Master Hand with all the strength he could muster, which was enough to make it stagger. Then, as Master Hand yelled in rage, they jumped backwards and began to run in a circle around the field, dodging more blasts of light.

  At the same time, Samus took a knee and began to charge her energy cannon. She had hit Master Hand with it before at full power to no effect, but this time it would be different.

  "Ready, Pikachu?" she asked.

  Pikachu nodded, and climbed onto her arm just above the cannon. She breathed in deeply, then opened her power supply to the small pokémon. Pikachu saw his cue and began to release electricity directly into the power suit. The energy blast doubled and then tripled in size as Pikachu added his power to hers, until it was taller than she was.

  "Mario! Yoshi!" she yelled. "Out of the way!"

  "Right!"

  Mario indicated to Yoshi to turn, and they cut off their charge in order to run towards Samus and Pikachu. Master Hand turned to follow their path, and saw too late what they were running towards.

  "Letsa go!" Mario yelled. Yoshi jumped, clearing Samus by a few feet, and Samus fired.

  The blast of energy dug a trench through the field as it approached Master Hand. The hand roared in defiance and opened its fingers to catch the blast in the air like it was trying to catch a baseball. It began to be pushed back by the force of the shot, but then it roared again and threw the blast towards Mario and Yoshi, who were already circling around for another attack. It hit the ground just behind them, creating a huge explosion that threw them both violently into the air. Yoshi managed to twist in mid-air, stopping Mario from taking much damage from the landing, but they both hit the ground hard before skidding a few feet. Then they went over the edge.

  "Mario!" Samus yelled. She tried to run towards them, but Master Hand blocked her path.

  It was clear that her attack had done a little more than just something - the fabric-like texture that made up the hand's surface was burned across the palm, and several of the fingers showed signs of tearing open, revealing more of that white cloud-like substance.

  "I will hurt you for what you've done!" the hand screamed at her.

  Pikachu's cheeks crackled with energy and her leapt towards the Master Hand before releasing all the electricity that he had left. The hand ignored him and batted him away, so that he struck Samus in the midriff and she had to reach down to hold onto him. That broke her focus, and when she looked up Master Hand was inches away from slamming into her. She had no time to respond and was knocked to the ground.

  Mario was holding onto the edge of the battlefield with one hand, and hanging on to Yoshi by the tail with the other. He tried to pull them up, but he just didn't have the strength left to lift them both after being thrown by the explosion.

  "I've got you, Yoshi!" he cried, even as he felt himself begin to slip.

  Samus looked up and saw Master Hand spreading its fingers above her. Light from the tears and missing finger were coalescing in its palm, as it prepared to throw all of that energy at her.

  "Pika."

  She held her friend close to her chest and stared at Master Hand. She wouldn't let him have the satisfaction of seeing her cower.

  "Falcon..."

  She heard the shout stretched out over eternity, and new what it meant. She smiled, as Master Hand's focus shifted the smallest amount to her right.

  "... Punch!"

  Captain Falcon's burning punch struck Master Hand in the side, sending it flying. The energy that it had been holding dropped from her hand towards Samus, but then there was a lurching sensation and she was suddenly on the other side of the battlefield, with an extremely out of breath Fox holding onto her arm.

  "Thanks for buying us some time," he said. "We really needed it."

  Master Hand had been sent flying by Captain Falcon, but it saw quickly what it was moving towards and tried to stop. Donkey Kong had his fist pulled back and was swinging it around in circles to build up momentum. As the moment when Master Hand reached him, he swung his fist upwards as hard as he could, hitting the hand hard enough to catapult it into the sky.

  Mario felt a hand on his wrist, and looked up to see Luigi, bruised and battered but still smiling. "Come on, bro," Luigi said. "You can't be out too early."

  He smiled. "Pull us up, then."

  Luigi pulled hard, and in one fluid motion Mario and Yoshi were swung upwards over his head and back onto the stage.

  Ness positioned himself, then shouted "PK Thunder!" and released his electric attack. It flew upwards and struck Master Hand just as it was trying to recover, knocking it off balance again. Then, as it looked down, it saw something rise up towards it. A moment later an angry, spinning Jigglypuff slammed into it, flipping it over so that it was underneath then driving it downwards.

  Master Hand slammed into the centre of the battlefield hard enough to leave a small crater around it. It rose from the ground, looking around at the eleven fighters surrounding it. How... how were they this strong? Before this fight there was no way they could have achieved this level of power. What was going on here?

  But... it couldn't lose. It couldn't afford to let the other side think that this world's hand was weak. So...

  "I'll stop holding back!"

  The rest of the glove began to flake away, revealing more of the white smoke beneath. As more of that smoke was revealed, it formed a more solid shape, until the only think left of the hand was energy, pure light energy in the shape of a hand.

  "This is your true form?" Captain Falcon asked.

  In answer, Master Hand flexed in his direction. A blast of energy arced from the tip of its finger and struck him in the chest. Rather than sending him flying, as the previous energy blasts had, it passed through him like a lance.

  The other fighters turned, horrified, as the light faded and they could now see the two-inch hole through the centre of the captain's chest. His mouth opened and closed with no sound, and he collapsed to the ground. Before he even hit the floor, his body turned to light and he disappeared.

  "Captain Falcon," said the Unbound Master Hand. "Been beaten."